FOXBORO – All the snow in December in New England had a better shot of melting in 4:49 before a Dolphins’ team up 11. And all of Ricky Williams 185-yards of sweat only turned into another puddle of Miami’s tears.

Somebody had to be looking out for the Jets, when a team up eight, at third and three at the Patriot 10 with five minutes remaining, throws the ball into the end zone when a give to a running back with 185 yards on the day at the very least takes another minute off the clock. And that angel, the one wearing the horns in South Florida, proved to be Miami coach Dave Wannstedt.

Just before Olindo Mare kicked a chip shot, set up by Brock Marion’s tip interception, that appeared to put this game and a playoff spot away, was the best place to start to explain how Miami laid a red carpet of shame for the Jets to their AFC East title.

The Dolphins let the Patriots come back, 27-24, blew a playoff spot after blowing the defending Super Bowl champions around like ragdolls most of the day, then got on their plane holding out about as much hope as Zach Thomas held pride in their performance.

“If we get in,” the linebacker said before finding out the Dolphins didn’t, “we don’t deserve it.

“All I hear is how much talent we have. That’s garbage. 9-7, that’s terrible.”

This year, it didn’t take every ounce of the Dolphins’ strength for a passing team just to get to December to die. This year, it took every ounce of their coach’s brain to freeze up. After Williams had run for two touchdowns and 120 yards at the half, the Patriots had slowed him with an extra man in the box. But with a genuine clock-eater finally on their side, the Dolphins’ inexplicably refused him the ball, even took the aggression out of a defense that had held the Patriots to two second-half field goals.

With too much time left on the clock to play so soft, they left Tom Brady, a quarterback playing with an injured hand, nickel and dime his way to the jackpot.

A highly arguable pass interference call on Jamar Fletcher, who engaged in a mutual light shove-off with David Givens, put the ball on the three, from where Brady place the ball into the hands of Troy Brown in the back of the end zone. Christian Fauria leaped for the conversion that put New England down only eight with all of its times outs and 2:46 left.

Returner Travis Minor, playing too short when an onside kick was now unnecessary, hesitated to pick up the ball when it bounced in the end zone and back out to the two, got only as far as the four, from where Fiedler unsuccessfully threw the ball three times, forcing Bill Belichick to burn no time outs, before Mark Royals shanked a punt out of bounds at the Miami 31. Elapsed time of possession: 31 seconds.

“We needed first downs, we needed to move the ball for points,” said Wannstedt. “We were going into the wind.”

The excuse was as limp as the flags on top of the goal posts. The Patriots required not a single first down to set up Adam Vinatieri’s tying field goal, and when Mare put the overtime kickoff out of bounds, only needed to make one in overtime, a 20-yard diving sideline catch by Kevin Faulk outside Derrick Rodgers, to set up Vinatieri’s 35-yard winning field goal.

“I’m not going to complain about a garbage [interference] call,” said Thomas. “They still scored, made the conversion. They were struggling too, just like us, but they made the plays.”

In the end, the Patriots, who missed their own chance to kill off the Jets a week ago, made them for nothing, and still didn’t wind up with the nothingness suffered by the Dolphins.